What to know about bicycle commuting in Minneapolis for someone new?

March 3, 2016 1:17 PM

What is there to know about bicycle commuting in Minneapolis for someone brand new -to both bike commuting and/or Minneapolis? Is 8 miles one way too far?

I figure I won't become a bicycle commuter overnight, and maybe only part-time at best when the weather is decent, but I would love the option here and there. The distance is about 8 miles, mostly via the Midtown Greenway and the Hiawatha Bike Trail to downtown. That's 16 miles round trip. Is that crazy? At that distance, do I need special biking clothes/underwear? Do I wad up my work clothes in a bag to wear after I shower?

If I go through with this, I was thinking of getting a single-speed road bike, something like this, since I like the simplicity and it looks like the city is mostly flat anyway. Is that logical, or will I really want some gears?

What are absolute musts for accessories? Obviously a helmet/lights. Rear rack? Fenders?

More importantly, what don't I know that I should know?

posted by yeti to Travel & Transportation (15 answers total)

Best answer: Have you heard of 30 Days of Biking? The founders live in Minneapolis (and are on twitter). It inspired me to become a bike commuter. It is a fun challenge for April to get you out on your bike, practicing, and learning, and just getting in the habit of being on your bike. They often have casual group rides that are for newbies and oldies in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I'd recommend pledging to do 30 days, or, if that is too intimidating, then try to join up with one of their group rides. You can talk face-to-face with people who have done the same thing.

MPR's Pedal Hub has some good stories on From zero to biking and What it takes to bike to work, and discussions on wear, too, including winter wear.

I prefer gears, a rear rack with panniers to hold my lunch, tools, jacket, and change of clothes. Fenders are nice for puddles. I have just 8 gears on a Felt Cafe 8 Deluxe that include a rear rack and fenders. I personally found the 8 gears to not be enough - most of my riding is between gears 1 - 4, with not enough grey area in there.
posted by jillithd at 2:13 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I ride to work (~6 miles each way) pretty much whenever it's above 40F and not raining when I leave the house. Once I get into the groove of doing it regularly, I much prefer it and it feels weird to take the subway. I don't think 8 miles round trip is crazy.

How much you'll sweat, whether you need a change of clothes, and what kind of bike you need, is up to you, the details of your ride, and the weather. My ride is completely flat except one bridge. Normally all I need to avoid sweating is (1) not wear a heavy or impermeable jacket (like a windbreaker/raincoat) and (2) take it easy on the bridge. But if it's summer and humid, that can change. In the summer, sometimes I wear only my undershirt and put the button-down on when I arrive. (Hey sometimes I put the button-down in the freezer the night before and then when I put it on at work it feels *great*). If it's pretty flat, a good single-speed could be fine.

Sometimes the heat/humidity is too much for me to deal with, and I don't want to shower/change at work, so I don't ride. I use the dew point as a barometer for that--I usually don't ride if the dew point is above 70 when I leave the house.

I love my rear rack (which works pretty well as a fender) and have a medium size pannier bag that also slings over my shoulder so I can comfortably carry it around with me as needed.
posted by benbenson at 2:19 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: I ride to work once or twice a week. It is 13 miles each way, and takes me 70-80 minutes each way. I wear bike clothes and change at work. I have a pedal assist electric bike, which flattens hills here in hilly Seattle. Other days I bike to one of the local park and rides, respectively about 3.5 miles and 5 miles from home and put my bike in a locker, then hop the bus or train.
posted by bearwife at 3:42 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: i personally wouldn't want to ride 16 miles on a single speed, daily - i'd prefer something like the marin lombard for around $1k. but these are terribly personal choices. can you borrow a bike? do any local bike shops let you ride bikes before you buy? i'd suggest you compare geared and single speed over that distance, if you can.

i admit, i work from home, but i do cycle quite a bit.

edit: similar (but not quite as cool imho) trek
posted by andrewcooke at 4:01 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: Honestly this is all personal preference. Lights are the only accessory I'd say it's imperative to buy before you start. Everything else (rack, fenders, clothes, etc) you'll figure out your preferences for once you get going.

Personally I wouldn't recommend starting on a single speed if you don't currently bike much -- maybe look at 3 or 7 speed internal hubs? But if you test ride a SS and you like it, then by all means! If you're riding in good weather in a flat city you have a lot of flexibility to decide what bike is right for you.
posted by no regrets, coyote at 5:09 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: Minneapolis is flat enough that a single speed is fine. I really didn't shift gears ever, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to get a single speed bike.

Fenders are definitely worth it. A rear fender is more important than a front fender, I think. A rack is nice, but I didn't have one while I lived in Minneapolis (when I had one in high school, I'd sometimes have problems with my backpack slipping off despite my best bungee-cord efforts, but panniers exist). A waterproof bag is a big plus, too.

I think I'm obliged to tell you to be alert on the Greenway, especially after dark, as people do get jumped. (That goes for bike paths generally, which are often not visible to passing traffic. This seems to sometimes be non-obvious to people who don't bike. A good chunk of the Greenway is below street level, at least west of Hiawatha.) If you're coming from west of Hiawatha, you probably don't need to bother going all the way to the Hiawatha Trail. There are massive bike lanes on Park/Portland. I was a fan of the bike lane on 11th Ave as well.
posted by hoyland at 6:29 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I bike commuted to downtown for about 7 years, four of which involved the LRT, 6 of which were single speed (Kona Paddywagon, and was very happy with it). Greenway --> LRT --> downtown is somewhat L-shaped and that suggests to me that there may be a faster/shorter route. Seconding Park/Portland/11th Avenue. I never felt unsafe on the LRT but I would definitely be nervous about the Greenway after dark.

Definitely fenders, definitely good lights, definitely some clothing or accessory with reflective strips. I got a mouthful of salty/mud/winter car water in my mouth once in my pre-fender days so my opinion is front and back are mandatory. Backpack is fine to start out but if your back starts bugging you then it's time for a rack.

GLOVES. For cold weather, I mean. Note that temps that are fine for walking with no gloves are less fine for biking with no gloves. I have a pair of super-light full-finger gloves that I nest inside of larger gloves because messing with my lock with no gloves on often meant my hands were painfully cold all the way home once I put my gloves on. WINDPROOF JACKET. Because wind. I got this and it is breathable, waterproof-ish and windproof. Definitely worth the money.
posted by good lorneing at 6:49 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: I had a really similar commute this last fall, using the same paths. Only about 6 miles, took me about half an hour. I have a weirdo 2-speed rig right now, but really only ever used one speed on that ride. I'll echo what's been said about fenders, LIGHTS, gloves. I'm not worried on the greenway at night, but i do keep up a good 'purposeful' pace. I like what coyote says above about an internal geared hub. they're the jam.
posted by Makwa at 7:41 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: I don't know about that area, but 8 miles is not far on a bike. I was able to travel the 6-7 miles from my last apartment in Chicago in about 24 minutes.
posted by deathpanels at 8:28 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: I'm a fair weather Minneapolis bike commuter, generally starting in March/April after the street sweeping is mostly done and ending for the season after fall daylight saving time because by then I'm tired of trying not to die in darkness via pothole/stupid drivers (the last part of my ride home is via city streets). My commute has always been 6-10 miles each way and mostly dedicated trail or the bike route up Bryant. Totally doable, and mostly flat. This year I'll be doing the new-ish Park/Portland bike lanes instead of Bryant.

I wear comfy clothing on the bike and change when I get to work, that way I can get away with not showering by getting rid of the sweaty clothes. I bring extra underwear for work (DO IT).

I like an even load on my bike, so I use two panniers on my rack - one for clothes/rain jacket/tools and the other for my purse and my lunchbag. My back would be permanently broken if I didn't have a rear rack. Fenders are awesome.

You can do it!
posted by Maarika at 8:35 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I live in the Twin Cities. I don't bike but I do drive on Park/Portland, both River Parkways, and other bike routes. I am begging you--and all other bikers--listen to the advise and get lights and lots of them, front, back, sides. Reflective clothing, too. I am a careful driver & bike aware because I do work with cyclists. It amazes me the number of riders who have either no lights at all or those small lights that work about as well as holding a match. Sorry for the rant, but just tonight some daredevil, no lights cyclist came screaming down the hill--22nd Ave?--and whipped in front of me by Bohemian Flats. And I was watching, because I know people bike down that way. Didn't see them, because no lights! Scared me, to say the least.
posted by Nosey Mrs. Rat at 8:46 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: Essentials: fenders (keeps spray from wet roads off), rack (if you're carrying anything, a backpack will make you sweat; panniers are better), lights (permanently mounted on the bike if possible rather than detachable, dynamo lights are good but you'll need a dynamo hub), a chainguard (if you intend to ride in normal clothes, it'll keep the chain/chainring from tearing the hell out of your pants and keep grease off your cuffs without needing clips/straps), a bell (to warn pedestrians/slower cyclists), good puncture-proof tires (Schwalbe Marathon Plus are bulletproof, and come with a reflective sidewall, which is a good thing), lightweight waterproof rain gear that you can stow in a pannier for when you need it (jacket and pants both, if you want to ride in the rain it's an essential; look for a jacket with a hood that'll fit over a helmet), gloves (not just for comfort/warmth; if you take a spill at any point putting your hands out to stop your fall is reflexive, and gloves keep you from getting a palmful of gravel).
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:03 PM on March 3, 2016

Best answer: When I started cycling regularly, the things that surprised me were how sore my shoulders/back got from leaning on the handlebars and the palms of my hands were really tender until I started wearing cycling gloves. The extra padding on the palms did the trick and my shoulders and upper back got stronger/better endurance after a few weeks but it was something that hadn't occurred to me might be a possibility.

It's not really hilly and a lot of people ride single speed bikes just fine but there are some elevation changes where you'll use gears if you have them and I've always sought to keep the same pace to my pedaling and used the gears to adjust for speed.
posted by VTX at 7:14 AM on March 4, 2016

Response by poster: Update! So I'm here in Mpls now and I've done the commute 2.5 times (rode it home after work when I picked it up). Test drove a bunch of geared bikes and almost by accident tried out a single speed. It felt immediately more comfortable. Tried to talk myself into a geared Surly Crosscheck, but on the same day tried out another single speed, the All City Nature Boy... And again felt the simplicity of the single speed felt less mental about what gear to be in.

The Nature Boy has an issue with rear racks, so I got a front rack that is working very well. I bungee my Chrome bag right to that instead of wearing it on my back. Holding off on fenders for now... Only riding in dry weather and pavement for now.

I feel like I'm in the right gear ratio most of the time. Maybe at some point I'll increase it to zoom along the greenway faster.

Thanks everyone. These answers really helped!
posted by yeti at 7:11 PM on May 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

I usually think of the gears like this:

The front three gears (the gear selector on the left, I think) select the range of ratios you want to have for where you're riding. The middle gear if it's flat, the shorter one for up-hill, the taller one for down-hill.

Then you just use the set of gears on the back wheel (controlled on the right, if I'm right about the other one) to keep a more-or-less even pace and effort in your legs. Just like a car, you start in the lowest gear and shift up as you accelerate until you're up to whatever pace/effort level you're trying to maintain. So if you feel like you're pushing too hard on the pedals, shift down a gear, if it's too light, time to up-shift! So I guess it's also about how hard you want to push on the pedals (which is kind of the same thing). I hope that makes sense/helps.

Welcome to the Twin Cities!
posted by VTX at 2:00 PM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]